With a dirty laugh that would scare the birds three miles away, Alesha Dixon is in high spirits. Just 18 months ago she had lost a record deal and her personal life was making tabloid headlines - after she split with husband Harvey of So Solid Crew fame - but now, a week before she turns 30, she's back where she'd like to be.

The first stage of her reinvention was to team up with Xenomania, the production outfit behind hits for Girls Aloud, who delivered an explosive comeback single, 'The Boy Does Nothing', which berates a boyfriend for his inability to do the housework.

Subsequently winning last year's run of Strictly Come Dancing, Dixon prompted a music industry bidding war, including one unexpected offer from Polydor, the label that had just dropped her. Signing to an imprint of Atlantic, she set about making an album with songwriters and producers such as Steve Lipson (Will Young, S Club 7) and the people responsible for Duffy's Mercy.

Pausing to draw breath amid a flurry of photo sessions and video shoots, she fills in some blanks for OMM ...

Peter Robinson For the Alesha novice, how would you explain your existence?

Alesha Dixon 'Well, I started as one-third of R&B garage band Mis-Teeq in the early 2000s, and I was with the band for five years. People might also know me for Strictly Come Dancing.'

PR You kept a strangely low profile for someone who won a reality TV competition. What happened to 'Alesha Dixon - Showbiz Sweetheart'?

AD 'Well, I was making my album - which I'd started recording before I went on Strictly ... - and at the end of the day it's not my job to turn up at premieres. I get quite embarrassed at those kind of things; they're not important to me. Some people worry when they're not in the tabloids but I'd rather just be seen when I'm doing something constructive. I don't have a desire to be seen all the time. If I've got an album, I'm doing Strictly ... or I've got a documentary on TV, that's fine. The problem with young girls now is that they aspire to be famous, rather than to be well known for being good at something. [Pause] Having said that, my goddaughter wants me to take her to the High School Musical 3 premiere, so you might see me on the red carpet for that ... '

PR One of your album tracks, 'Breathe Slow', is about breathing deeply to stop yourself shooting someone. Could it put an end to gun crime?

AD [Splutters] 'Pop music is powerful but perhaps not that powerful! The song was written for women about chilling and not losing your dignity. Losing your rag is not a class act. Another song, 'Do You Know the Way it Feels', is about when you're heart-wrenchingly in love and it consumes you. That feeling when you're in love where you can't think beyond being in love with that person. It can burn you. A lot of people have experienced that. And even though I don't have that feeling now, I once did.'

PR We're talking now about the events that led to you selling your wedding dress on eBay, aren't we?

AD 'I didn't even sell it in the end! I put it up there [last February] and someone put up a false bid so I've still got the bloody thing, unfortunately. But speaking of "that", there are a few songs on the album which deal with it - that point when I felt like my life had ended after I lost my husband and record deal within two weeks. There's one song called 'Can I Begin' which is about making a fresh start and moving forward. It ends on a positive note.'

PR Did you expect your comeback single to bear more than a passing resemblance to Lou Bega's 1999 No 1 hit 'Mambo No.5'?

AD 'It would have made no sense at all. But people might look at me and see a mixed race girl and think, "Oh, she'll do R&B," but I grew up in a predominantly white area in Great Britain, my father's Jamaican and my mother listened to Pink Floyd ... I feel like I've got a nice mix. As for the 'Mambo No.5' sound, it just feels right. The song started over as more jazzy, bluesy music, but it ended up going there. We need a good feelgood song now, what with everything going on in the world.'